After living through 89 tough years in this great country, including the Depression, World War II, the Cold War, etc., I am sorry to say I have never felt so depressed about the condition of this nation.

I mistakenly felt we had made significant progress in the battle against racism. I was wrong. The GOP has but one real focus now — defeat Barack Obama, apparently because he is black.

I felt the middle class was the backbone of America. I was wrong. George W. Bush appointed new Supreme Court members who favor only the rich and super rich. The court has ruled that the super rich can donate any amount to the party of their choice.

I believed that the people, after a life of work helping the country grow, deserved a retirement and medical assistance as required. I was wrong. Tax relief to the rich is “democracy.” Social Security and Medicare are “socialism.”

I always felt America made and the world took. I was wrong. Corporate America only makes profits if it takes jobs from its citizens and ships them overseas. In the eyes of right-wingers, a starving child is insignificant compared to a corporation not posting profits.

I had a strong belief that America was a moral country. I was wrong. In Bush’s Iraq war, we invaded a Muslim country, killed hundreds of thousands of its citizens for no reason, and still wonder why they don’t like that idea. Now we wonder why they take cracks against us when they can?

I feel we can come back and be a great country again, but only if the citizens are as important as the corporations.

Finally, President Dwight David Eisenhower, the man who led us through World War II, told us when he left office to beware of “the military-industrial complex.”